It’s HOT in our city of Coquimbo, Chile, during this final week of the Advent season. Still, the port’s most iconic landmark, the Third Millennium Cross, towers above the summer haze on the highest hill. A testament to the power of the Name, as I reminded a group of women at a year-end tea. During…
Samuel Adams, perhaps the most indispensable of the Founding Fathers, wrote to his friend Richard Henry Lee near the beginning of the American Revolution (1776): “Should there be found a citizen of the United States so unprincipled as to ask what will become of us if we do not follow the corrupt maxims of the…
Legend has it that the Archipelago of Chiloé in southern Chile still hides some of the biggest pirate treasures of all time. The myriad deserted shores and maze of channels offer plenty of places for dropping off a stash of gold looted from the storied hoards of Incan Peru. Treasure islands, for sure. Between the…
Sometime in the past decade, the Sahne Nuss tin pictured above came home with me in a green-and-white shopping bag from our Jumbo supermarket in Santiago. Everybody, myself included, loves classic Sahne Nuss milk-chocolate-and-almond bars, but mostly I fell in love with the image on the lid. It perfectly pictures our life in the Chiloé…
Many years ago as we were seeing a missionary friend off on a bus trip, another friend turned to me on the terminal platform. “Is there anything more typical of missionary life than traveling?” she remarked. How on-the-nose she was, because Jesus’ “go ye” gives us an open door, a travel ticket to the world….
I love mysteries, especially historical mysteries. I also love history, which is why you’ll find the mysterious past woven into many of my books. One mystery of history, however, is how easily we forget both the good and the bad. “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” –Winston S. Churchill…
If Michael Jordan and Pelé (if you have to ask, the joke’s for you) were walking down the street together anywhere except North America, 99% of the people would ask, “Who’s that guy with Pelé?” That’s how soccer rules the world. Because everybody from Manchester to Moscow, Montevideo to Melbourne, knows soccer. Everybody may not…
It’s official. For one of the few times in 210 years, Fiestas Patrias, Chile’s patriotic celebration beginning on September 18th, is canceled in our city. What only the military coup of 1973 could accomplish before, the Covid-19 pandemic has now put into effect. We won’t miss the 3-day Booze Bash, but we’ll long for the…
The stories that turn up in The Quarantine Tales have highlighted many of the themes threaded through my work. I’ve discovered that one of my favorite topics is ART (as July’s posts indicate). Art therapy touches our hearts. Even my books are purposed to tease beauty out of barren places and broken people. “The earth…
Are you ever afraid of the dark? Darkness can fill us with anxiety and even terror if we think of it as the abode of demons and bogeymen, but we should realize that it’s also the dwelling place of God, His pavilion. God stores many treasures in the darkness that He only displays at special…
Far too much time has passed since I’ve spent an afternoon at our local beach. Some stretches of it have closed during this time of quarantine. Entire beach towns are blockaded. Though we’ve tried to behave and stay away, I miss—desperately—that singular beauty at the beach. Disappointing to say, we only fit in one beach…
This is where I write “The End” on the story. Where trash turns to treasure, research to resolution, and vacation to fictional vision. Day 6, the final chapter of our Patagonian Journey. “The danger is greatest when the finish line is in sight… Be wary at the end.” –Steven Pressfield, The War of Art You…
